This is Part 6 of an 8 part series that dives into the eight key benefits of having an advisory board and how it can help you, the business owner, achieve greater levels of success. If you’d like to read an overview of the other key benefits, please click here.
For more information on the benefits of forming an advisory board, listen to my interview on Social Geek Radio here.
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When it’s time to make a business decision, how often do you rely on the advice and expertise of your business advisors? Or perhaps your colleagues, neighbors and friends?
It’s something that many of us do regularly. While this sharing of ideas and discussion is good, however, the process of having multiple conversations with multiple people can take a long time. On top of that, it’s also highly unstructured. These are conversations happening spontaneously at networking events, or over coffee with a trusted friend. They’re casual, random - and probably not as results-focused as they really need to be.
A better, more efficient approach, is to have these conversations with an organized board of advisors. Now, instead of having five different phone calls with five different people about five different things, you’re having ONE conversation with all of these resources - and covering all topics - on a single call. It’s a highly efficient process that allows for greater collaboration and idea sharing than you’d be able to achieve otherwise - so that you can get the guidance needed to make educated business decisions. There’s also some formality to these “Board” phone calls and meetings, with participants being given an agenda and time to prepare. Not only does this allow participants to think through issues in advance, but it provides the needed structure to keep the conversation on track.
Another advantage of these board meetings, is that they provide a forum to not just discuss agenda items, but to discuss other ideas, as well. These are often ideas or issues that are a product of the group discussion and that wouldn’t have come up if you were meeting individually with a single person. It’s a key advantage of working with a group of people who know each other well and who have developed the level of trust and comfortability needed to openly ask questions and share ideas.
Not only is this process highly efficient, but when done right, it can create a powerful level of collaboration that will lead to better decision making and likely a deeper understanding of your business than you’d be able to achieve otherwise.